Today’s PM Minute is inspired by an experience that I had over the last couple of days with my anti-virus and internet security software.

Without using names, I’ll say that the software is from a major name. Starting yesterday, I began getting popups that a download had failed and that I needed to restart my computer. After three restarts, all with the same message, I finally got another popup telling me that I’d need to reinstall the software.

I did a full reinstall, following the software’s prompts and links to be told that I needed a new version to be compatible with Windows 10. Then the new version hung up for having multiple attempts to install running at once. Finally, after the install, my computer was taken over by pop-ups offering tours and info and my browser startup page pointed to their website.

All of that is a great example of why you should think about, and involve as much as possible, the user while building your solution and completing your project. Of course you won’t have a customer on your project team. But, always try to have someone on the team who is relentlessly focused on the user experience and heavily involved in review and testing. You’ll save your customer from a bunch of pop-ups, reboots, and do-overs.